He scored 12 points. He recorded 10 assists vs. two turnovers. He made two steals and even blocked a shot. In Jardine’s last two games, he’s accumulated 19 assists.

“He was one of the reasons his team won the game today,” Pitt guard Ashton Gibbs said. “He really penetrated and kicked well. He did a great job of leading his team to a victory.”

Jardine has talked over the years about how the game has slowed down for him. His first couple seasons at SU, he would see a teammate flash to an open spot, but would react too slowly to see the defender creeping into the play.

But now, with the wisdom of four-plus college basketball seasons, he can think a play or two ahead. He can anticipate.

Scoop Jardine: Meet the OrangeSenior guard Scoop Jardine averaged 12.5 points and led the team with 5.9 assists while starting all 35 games last season for the Syracuse University basketball team. He'll be the starter again this season at point guard.

On three occasions, he found Fab Melo curling to the rim with a lob pass. That play, as simple as it looked Monday in the Carrier Dome, was the result of hours of film work and years of trial and error.

“There will be times, if we run a pick and roll, I know where the defense helps so much because I watch a lot of film,” he said. “Pitt is really not as good as they were last year. They don’t really have bigs who can stay with me off the pick. So tonight I told Fab, ‘Roll to the basket and I’ll lob it to you.’”

Jardine has these conversations frequently during games. SU players will invariably recount a circumstance from a game with some sort of Jardine sidebar. C.J. Fair dunked with authority over Talib Zanna on Monday. Afterward, Fair said Jardine kept teasing him about his disappearing leaping ability this year. When he threw down the dunk, Fair thought of Jardine.

“He is the leader of this team. He’s a vocal leader,” SU coach Jim Boeheim said. “He’s a guy who will make plays. He’s not afraid to make plays. He can make plays and he does make plays. And when he shoots the ball good, he’s one of the best point guards in the league.”

Boeheim postulated that Jardine would lead the league in assists if he logged the kind of minutes other Big East point guards played. Before Monday’s 37-minute outing, Jardine had been averaging 21.5 minutes per game.

But those minutes, as valuable as they are, can’t match the intangible items Jardine provides the Orange. Early Monday, he pulled his teammates aside and told them they must match Pitt’s physicality to have any chance to win. He is already considering the conversations he’ll have with players this weekend, when SU plays at Notre Dame and Cincinnati, two places he terms “hostile environments.”

He has preached, more than anything this season, for players to approach each game with a singular focus.

“He’s a key guy,” Boeheim said. “Most people in this town can’t quite figure that out. Maybe they will, but I seriously doubt it.”

“He’s the ultimate leader,” SU guard Brandon Triche said. “When guys are down, you’ll see him a lot of times going over to talk to him just to keep your head in the game. A guy like that, you need.”

Jardine modeled his senior behavior on a Syracuse teammate. He would watch Andy Rautins score seven points in a game, but witness the reverence and the deference his teammates showed when he took them aside to say a kind word, or slipped a note into their locker. He knew how it felt to be on the receiving end of one of those conversations.

So Jardine came back to Syracuse. He returned to college, though he already had his degree. What he wants is waiting in New Orleans on April 2.

“I’m doing whatever it takes to win a national championship,” he said. “If they need me to play 25-30 minutes, I’m there for them. If they need me to play 15 a night, I’m there for them. Play the best 15 minutes I can possibly play. And if I do that, it’s easier for the younger guys to do that. That’s leading. That’s leading by example. That’s the thing: I came back for this team.”